Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Hey Wilma, Look at that Hurricane!

Hurricane Wilma upped the ante last night by 100 mph in the course of 4 hours to become the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin, and the fifth category 5 storm of the season. Currently, top sustained winds are at 175 mph. The storm is projected to take a hard right as soon as it passes the west end of Cuba, and make landfall in the southern Florida penninsula sometime this weekend. This just in, at 12:30 p.m EST, via beeper to my supervisor: projected landfall somewhere near Naples.

Visitors to the Florida Keys were ordered to evacuate today. Over 6800 FEMA trailers across Florida still house families who lost homes during the last hurricane season. Hurricane Wilma is predicted to pass quickly over Florida, possibly with little diminution of its strength.

Here in north central Florida, we have predictions of spotty rainstorms associated with the outer bands of the storm, and little else. We'll see how the forecast shapes up over the next couple of days before we rest easy.

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